The 2014 midterm elections were full of surprises, mostly bad for the Democratic Party. Many Democratic candidates were defeated in races where the polls showed them with small but consistent leads. Chief…

The US 2014 midterm elections have seen the Republicans make big gains. The party has secured a majority in both houses of Congress – potentially teeing up two years of gridlock and frustration for the…

Polls are open. Which campaigns’ ground games will outlast the election?
APNovember 4, 2014

In the final Election Day push, more and more focus is being shifted to the “ground game,” or the effort campaigns make to identify and turn out voters. From Massachusetts to Alaska, New Hampshire to Colorado…

If Democrats win governorships in battleground states, their fortunes in the House of Representatives will improve considerably – in the long term.
EPA/Michael ReynoldsOctober 30, 2014

If the polls are correct, the headlines on November 5 following the US midterm elections will proclaim that Democrats have suffered a major defeat. The Democrats will likely lose the Senate. President…

What if an experimental treatment seems to hold a terminal patient’s only hope?
Pill bottle image via www.shutterstock.comOctober 30, 2014

On November 4, the state of Arizona will decide whether to join Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana and Michigan in passing so-called right to try laws. If passed, the “Arizona Terminal Patients’ Right To Try…

A Red Cross burial team retrieves the body of a suspected victim of Ebola in Liberia.
EPA/Ahmed JallanzoOctober 30, 2014

How will the Ebola crisis influence next week’s mid-term elections in the USA? One might expect that an epidemic limited almost entirely to West Africa should be way, way down on the list of factors likely…

Nothing but corn as far as the eye can see
Timothy M. HagleOctober 29, 2014

Every four years Iowa begins the presidential nomination process with the Iowa Caucuses. The start of caucus season is also the start of complaints by those who object to Iowa going first in the nomination…

Although the midterms are typically referred to as federal elections, there is no federal entity that governs the conduct of elections in the US. There are basic election laws governing the timing of federal…

Every four years a Presidential election is held in the United States. Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012, and the next Presidential election will be held in November 2016. However, the US also holds…

The outside is being renovated, but what about the inside?
Jim Bourg/ReutersOctober 21, 2014

Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…